Another Minigolf Wild Goose Chase...
I recently heard from two of my fellow intrepid Minigolf explorers Paul 'Johnson Paul Johnson' Johnson and Trevor 'Trevino' Robertson that there appears to be a Miniature Golf course set-up on a rooftop in London!
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| The photo of the 'Miniature Golf' course on the roof of the Tooley Street Building. Photo by Trevor Robertson (Feb 2013) |
The building and "Minigolf / Crazy Golf / Putting / Adventure Golf course" in question was spotted from The Shard and looked to be located on Tooley Street, near to London Bridge Station/Tower Bridge.
I headed along to see what I could find out, but didn't manage to access the 'course'.
.JPG "The Shard shrouded in fog. Viewed from Tooley Street") |
| The Shard shrouded in fog. Viewed from Tooley Street |
After asking around in some of the buildings and businesses on the street I was no closer to finding out if it was indeed a Minigolf course up there, what I did find out was that a Tesco Metro store occupied the ground floor unit, while it appeared that the roof and offices below it were part of PwC. More research was needed!
.JPG "A view of the building on Tooley Street without a 'Minigolf' course on the roof") |
| A view of the building on Tooley Street without a 'Minigolf' course on the roof |
So yesterday I gave the building's owners - More London - a call and asked them if it was in fact a Miniature Golf course? Unfortunately the answer from the very helpful member of staff I spoke to was "no". In fact it's a 'green roof'. Still, from a distance it looks remarkable like a Mini Golf course!
In the 1920's there were over 150 rooftop Miniature Golf courses in New York City and in the 1930’s the roof at Selfridges London was home to one of the UK’s first Minigolf courses! In 2012 the department store set-up a Bompas & Parr Crazy Golf course on the rooftop garden as part of the Big British Bang event that lasted all summer. Emily and I visited and played the course in June when it became the 298th course played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour! We also played in three tournaments at the course and I won the Crazy Golf with Bompas & Parr Championship Final in August 2012.
In April 2011 I was 85 Years Too Late to Play a Rooftop Putting Green in London, when I visited Adelaide House, also near London Bridge, which had a rooftop putting green in the 1920's!
In October 2011 we also found out that there is a Mini Golf course on the Roof Terrace at The Portobello Gold Hotel. Unfortunately to play it you must be a Hotel Guest booked in that room!
Since July 2008 we've visited and played a number of Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London. We've also visited a fair few that we've been unable to play for one reason or another!
If you know of any good (or bad) Minigolf courses - on roofs or otherwise - do let me know via the comments on this post, or drop me an email here.
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